THEN THERE WERE 7: Region Loses Its Chance For FIFA Presidency Due To USVI Member’s Epic Blunder

David Nakhid of Trinidad would like to get his hands on the USVI-FIFA President Hillaren Frederick who cost him his chance at the FIFA presidency.

GENEVA – A person from the Caribbean will not have a chance to replace the scandal-plagued outgoing President Sepp Blatter at FIFA because the representative from the territory violated the elections rules.

Now only seven men are in the running to replace Blatter — rather than eight — with Michel Platini’s candidature accepted but pending because of his suspension from soccer.

USVI’s FIFA President is Hillaren Frederick, the USVI general secretary is Keithroy Cornelius, but it is Frederick who was elected to the top spot in 2011.

FIFA published the list of valid applications “proposed in due time and form” on Wednesday. It did not include former Trinidad and Tobago player David Nakhid, who did not have the five required nominations.

Nakhid was considered an outsider in the contest but the one most likely to bring a player’s perspective to the job. Although Nakhid had the five required nominations, he told The Associated Press that one of his backers — the USVI’s FIFA delegate Frederick — broke election rules by also supporting another candidate.

“One of the five declarations of support for Mr Nakhid was declared invalid as the same member association had previously issued a declaration of support for another candidate,” a FIFA statement said. “In view of this, the Ad-hoc Electoral Committee decided not to consider Mr Nakhid’s application as it did not fulfil the required five declarations of support.”

The former Trinidad and Tobago international stated prior to Monday’s deadline that he had the backing of five federations and would stand to replace the Swiss as head of world football’s governing body.

However, Nakhid was not on the list of candidates confirmed by FIFA on Wednesday because of the violation of FIFA protocol by the U.S. Virgin Islands representative.

FIFA’s three-man election panel, led by audit committee chairman Domenico Scala, will announce next month which of the seven candidates have been officially accepted after integrity checks by the FIFA ethics committee.

Three of the candidates are from Europe, two are from Africa and two from Asia.

The Confederation of African Football declined to endorse either South African Sexwale or Bility of Liberia after four days of meetings ended Wednesday in Cairo.

CAF said in a statement that its executive committee, chaired by interim FIFA President Issa Hayatou, had “plenty of time to decide, with the interest of the continent the primary objective.”

Platini had been due to visit Cairo before being suspended for 90 days this month by the FIFA ethics committee.

The UEFA president’s entry has been accepted pending the outcome of an investigation into financial wrongdoing.

“Given that Michel Platini is currently provisionally banned from taking part in any football-related activity, his candidature will not be processed by the ad-hoc electoral committee as long as such ban is valid and in force,” FIFA said in a statement.

Platini was the favorite until he and Blatter were questioned by Swiss federal police on Sept. 25 over a suspected “disloyal payment” from FIFA in 2011. The UEFA president got about $2 million approved by Blatter as uncontracted salary for work he did as a presidential adviser at least nine years earlier.

Platini denies wrongdoing and is appealing against the suspension. Blatter was also banned for 90 days.

The Author

John McCarthy

John McCarthy has been reporting on the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Caribbean region since 1989. John's articles have appeared in the BVI Beacon, St. Croix Avis, San Juan Star and Virgin Islands Daily News. He is originally from Detroit, Michigan.